Veteran British stars John Hurt, Joan Collins and Kristin Scott Thomas will have double the reason to celebrate on New Year's Eve (31Dec14) after landing on Queen Elizabeth II's New Year Honours list. Alien actor Hurt will be made a 'Sir' in 2015 in recognition of his services to drama throughout his 50-year stage and screen career, 11 years after he received a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) medal in 2004.
Actresses Collins and Scott Thomas will be among those feted as Dames, alongside poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, British TV presenter Esther Rantzen and fashion designer Mary Quant.
Gushing about the news, Dynasty icon Collins admits she is "delirious, thrilled, excited and very honoured" to be honoured for her charity work, adding, "There's nothing to compare to being a Dame and getting that kind of accolade from my country and my Queen.
"I am very patriotic and quite a Royalist, so it is extraordinary."
And Scott Thomas, who will ironically play The Queen in a new version of the play The Audience in 2015, says, "This is an immense honour that I could not believe was really for me."
Meanwhile, actresses Emily Watson, Sheridan Smith and comedian James Corden, who is set to embark on a new career as a top late night talk show host in America, will be made Officers of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), and writer/actress Meera Syal makes the cut as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Jeff Neumann/CBS Broadcasting
Season 2 of Elementary has come to a close and we're faced with several things all at once: Sherlock Holmes throwing his lot in in with MI6, Joan Watson moving out on her own and Mycroft Holmes vanishing in order to escape the potential wrath of the French terrorist group Le Mileu. It's going to be quite interesting to see how this all shakes out.
The first character whose future we must consider is Sherlock, specifically in regards to his decision to consult for British Intelligence. That plainly means that the esteemed detective will be setting up shop in London. What this means for Captain Thomas Gregson and detective Marcus Bell is anybody's guess. Apart from an arc that featured Bell getting shot due to something Sherlock did and Gregson trying to save his marriage at one point, the two were largely reduced to having Gregson yell at Sherlock for breaking protocol and Bell to sitting and scowling next to Sherlock during police interrogations. The writers really need to do something with those two, since Aidan Quinn and Jon Michael Hill are both too talented to just be bit players again during Season 3. A good solution would be for Holmes to realize that New York is too much in his blood and have him return there after an episode or two so they can re-integrate Gregson and Bell as Sherlock realizes his mistake.
What to do about Mycroft? Although Elementary isn't in any way strictly adherent to the canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's material, Rhys Ifans didn't feel like the right fit as Sherlock's brother, especially compared to the Mycroft of the BBC's Sherlock. This isn't a knock against Ifans' acting ability, but the show might want to make him undergo plastic surgery and have him coming back looking like an entirely different person. There just didn't seem to be any genuine chemistry between Ifans and Lucy Liu either — the Mycroft/Watson plot just seemed cobbled together to make Sherlock act like an even bigger ass than he normally does.
Speaking of Watson, she is a bigger issue. There still doesn't seem to be an avenue for Sherlock to have any romantic feelings for her, since he is still far too vested in his work, since that is probably one of the only things keeping him from slipping back into an abyss of drug use (though the audience is still going to be very interested to find what he did with that baggie of heroin that he stashed in his jacket pocket towards the end of Season 2. There were some who speculated that he might have intended to slip back into drug use to force Watson's hand into becoming his "sober companion," the pairing that made them fall into each other's orbits in the first place. That scenario was seemingly dashed when he decided to accept the MI6 offer, but that baggie will keep lurking like Chekhov's Gun during the summer hiatus, leaving us wondering what place it had. Will it force a reconciliation of sorts between the two or will it be forgotten?
The show is on a good path, and this upcoming season is going to be an important one in terms of it staying on stable footing. Jonny Lee Miller is a fantastic actor, and he's made Sherlock a must-watch character full of nuance beyond being an arrogant socially inept buffoon, but it's going to be up to the writers to make it must-watch TV. They have ths summer to really hammer that down or they will have even more time the following season to spend on the beach.
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Tribeca Film via Everett Collection
Unfortunately saddled with one of those titles that leaves itself open to pun-filled reviews , there's not much truth to be found in The Truth About Emanuel, a film that's sadly unaware with how utterly ridiculous it comes across to the viewer.
The story follows Emanuel (Katia Scodelario), a surly teenager who's closing in on 18, but still feels pangs of guilt due to the fact that her mother died while giving birth to her. She takes out her anger on her new stepmom (Frances O'Connor), and her doting father (Alfred Molina) struggles to understand the fire burning inside his daughter. Emanuel begins to connect with her mysterious new neighbor Linda (Jessica Biel), who Emanuel agrees to babysit for.
The film's twist, which is revealed within the first act of the movie, is that Linda's daughter isn't a real baby, but a doll that Linda thinks is real and is using as a coping mechanism. Not wanting to break the spell that Linda has cast on herself, Emanuel goes along with Linda's psychosis, and what follows is a ridiculous game of "keep away" (or, better put, "pretend the baby is alive") like some twisted, direct-to-DVD sequel of Weekend at Bernie's. Emanuel bends over backwards to prevent anyone to get a glimpse at the plastic baby, and the last hour of the movie feels like a rejected C-plot of the worst mid-'80s sitcom never created.
The film's two protagonists are flip sides of the same grief stricken coin. Emanuel is a daughter riddled with the guilt over killing her mother, while Linda's very being is swallowed up by the loss of her child. The film wants to say some very poignant things about loss and grief, but even without the fake baby plotline flinging the story down into the bowels of unintentional farce, the film's writing is still too blunt and sloppy to express its ideas well. The characters ring false and the script clunks and clatters its whole way through with groan inducing lines. Adding the baby plotline on top of all that ensures that almost nothing in this film that comes off as "true."
There is a film in here somewhere that could have carried the story about the coping mechanisms we build to escape our grief, but The Truth About Emanuel just isn’t self aware enough to know how ridiculous it comes across, and the cast just isn't up to task to sell a dramatic story that could have just as easily worked as the main gag in a backburner SNL skit.
1/5
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Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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The stars are bringing their fashion A-game to the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. For the opening night of the prestigious festival, Isla Fisher looked stunning in a ruffled red dress while Nicole Kidman took a risk with some interesting, swashbuckling sleeves. Needless to say, not all of our fashionistas hit home runs: some looks are gorgeous, some are hideous, and some are just plain confusing. But we always have Leonardo DiCaprio to calm us down — because let's face it, everyone loves Leo in a tux.
Launch our gallery to see which stars' looks at Cannes had us saying "Oh la la!"
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More:'Gatsby' on Cannes' Opening NightSee Emma Watson Go Bad in First 'Bling Ring' TrailerBig Sundance Winner Heads to Cannes to Wow the World
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The 2013 Cannes Film Festival — the world's premiere fest for stars, world debuts, and Oscar buzz — is now in full swing and Hollywood.com is on the ground to catch a glimpse of the the movie world's vacation to the French Riviera. With famous faces like Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Watson, Justin Timberlake, and Ryan Gosling, and new films by maestros like The Coen Bros., Nicolas Windig Refn (Drive), Sofia Coppola, and Alexander Payne (The Descendents), Cannes is a packed house of A-Lister talent (see the full list of prestigious films here). Ready to dive in?
We'll be updating live from the Cannes for the next two weeks. Follow along as the reactions and reviews come flickering off the projection screen:
RYAN GOSLING HAS ONLY 17 LINES IN 'ONLY GOD FORGIVES' Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn keeps his star contemplative but dangerous, while Kristen Scott Thomas is an absolute riot.
CANNES FASHION: SEE THE LOOKS! Stars from Isla Fisher to Nicole Kidman and Leonardo DiCaprio show off the latest looks on the red carpet.
'BEHIND THE CANDELABRA' IS TAME DESPITE MATT DAMON Steven Soderbergh's last hurrah is HBO's Liberace biopic, a straightforward affair offering amazing performances by Damon and Douglas.
'SHIELD OF STRAW' IS MARK WALHBERG STYLE ACTION FLICK... ... without Mark Wahlberg. The Audition director debuts a new crime thriller at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, in the vein of every Wahlberg movie ever. The only thing missing is Wahlberg himself.
THE 'HELI' MOMENT THAT IS JUST WAITING TO GO VIRAL Amat Escalante's Mexican drama Heli is hyper-violent and stunningly beautiful. We predict one scene could blow up on the Internet.
REVIEW: ALEC BALDWIN'S 'SEDUCED AND ABANDONED' Baldwin teams with director James Toback to pull back the curtain on the Cannes Film Festival, Hollywood, and the hardships of movie making.
HEAR THE SONGS IN THE 'INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS' SOUNDTRACK The Coen Bros. recruit Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, and Oscar Issac to cover classic '60s folk songs in their Cannes Film Festival debut — here are a few of them.
'THE PAST' ALREADY BOASTS BEST PERFORMANCES OF 2013Asghar Farhadi's Paris-set Le passe recruits Academy Award-nominated actress Berenice Bejo for a heartpounding family drama.
ROBIN WRIGHT IN 'THE CONGRESS' PREDICTS YOUR DEMISEWaltz with Bashir director Ari Folman delights with his latest film starring Robin Wright, The Congress.
WHY DO WE STILL CRUSH ON LEO DICAPRIO LIKE IT'S 1997? Leonardo DiCaprio wins hearts in this month's The Great Gatsby, but there's a part of us that still swoons they way we did when we saw Titanic.
WHAT CAN '50 SHADES' LEARN FROM 'YOUNG &amp; BEAUTIFUL'? Swimming Pool director Francois Ozon returns to Cannes with Jeune et Jolie, an erotic coming of age story starring model-turned-actress Marine Vacth.
REAL JEWEL HEIST AS 'BLING RING' PREMIERED AT CANNESPolice say that thieves robbed $1 million worth of jewels out of a Chopard employee's hotel room. These jewels were meant to be worn by celebs.
EMMA WATSON IS HILARIOUS IN 'THE BLING RING' Lost in Translation director Sofia Coppola goes after gossip culture with a ripped-from-the-headlines story of teenagers stealing from Paris Hilton.
'GATSBY' OPENS CANNES: REVIEWBaz Luhrmann's latest is full of color and Jay-Z curated tracks, but it falls flat in comparison to DiCaprio's Gatsby and Carey Mulligan's jazz age ingenue.
EMMA WATSON GOES BAD IN FIRST 'BLING RING' TRAILER Sofia Coppola's newest film about the true events surrounding several celebrity robberies
BIG SUNDANCE WINNER HEADS TO CANNESFruitvale lives up to award hype thanks to Michael B. Jordan's stunning performance.
6 REASONS 'LLEWYN DAVIS' IS QUINTESSENTIAL COEN BROS.How does the Coen Bros. collaboration with Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, and Oscar Isaac compare to their other beloved films?
RYAN GOSLING GETS HIS A** KICKED IN NEW TRAILERIf you enjoyed Drive but wished it had more eastern influence, look no further than Only God Forgives, the latest team-up between Gosling and Drive helmer Nicolas Winding Refn.
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Year's end is close upon us and the Hollywood.com staff is finally ready to weigh in on the best of the best of big screen. We sat through movie after movie, January through December, to give you a definitive list of 2012's stand out films. Who made the cut? Read on for our writers' picks for the best movies of the year:
The Best
21 Jump Street (Picked By Kate Ward)
The reboot of the 1980s series starring Johnny Depp had everything going against it: It was released during the industry's March dead zone, which also happened to coincide with disinterested audiences' increasing desire to give all Hollywood reboots the boot. But 21 Jump Street jumped past all these hurdles, becoming not only one of Hollywood's few entertaining reboots, but one that showcased the surprising comedic talents of 2012's A-list breakout Channing Tatum. And in a year full of blockbuster tentpoles (The Hunger Games, Breaking Dawn — Part 2, and The Dark Knight Rises) and Oscar bait (Argo, Les Misérables, and Django Unchained), how could you not lend some support to 2012's true underdog?
Amour (Picked By Matt Patches)
In the last 20 years, Michael Haneke has explored every facet of human evil, no act of violence or shame too perverse for his cinematic journeys. Amour is new territory for the auteur, certainly his sweetest film to date, yet continuing his trend of forcing us to confront our deepest fears as emotional beings. With two powerful performances by French actors Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, Haneke's film follows an elderly couple who grapple with staying sane in the final moments of their lives. Anne (Riva) is bed-stricken and barely aware of her surroundings. Georges (Trintignant) dedicates his every minute to taking care of her. The audiences watches, inspired, shocked, and warmed by the simple, raw drama of it all.
Anna Karenina (Picked By Abbey Stone)
Jon Wright's luscious, highly stylized adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic story of love and despair divided critics, but I was captivated by it. A departure from Wright's sweeping retellings of such literary masterpieces as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, Anna Karenina is claustrophobic, physically and figuratively. By trapping his characters in the ever-moving sets of an imperial theater (used to its best advantage in a heart-stopping horse race scene), Wright illustrates the rigid, suffocating bounds of Russian society life. Tom Stoppard's screenplay, meanwhile, takes Tolstoy's tome and strips it down to simple language that conveys the most elemental of human desires. The gorgeous costumes, actors, and landscape (a literal breath of fresh air when you venture outside the stifling theater) all compliment one another to create the film's mesmerizing dreamscape.
Argo (Picked By Kelsea Stahler)
It may be a mind-bending thought to suppose that a Ben Affleck film may be in the running for an Oscar, but Argo is unavoidable in the conversation about who’ll take the awards stage in February of next year. But the reason it stands out as a favorite in 2012 isn’t owed to any fancy behind-the-scenes footwork. This film hearkens back to an older time in both setting and style; it’s got a few frill and all the suspense and soul audiences require of a great movie. Heck, it’s even got a few moments of tense humor, which is practically requisite of a film that involves the production of a fake Star Wars rip-off as a resolution to a harrowing hostage situation. Argo is by no means the most perfectly-crafted film of 2012, but it rises to the top tier as one of the more solidly enjoyable and diverting films of the year. And since it’s based on a true story, you might even learn a thing or two.
The Avengers (Picked By Sydney Bucksbaum)
The Avengers rounded up all the Marvel movie superheroes in what could have been a film reminiscent of Michael Bay: gratuitous action and destruction of major cities, with little to no plot. Thankfully, with Joss Whedon at the helm, we were gifted with a snarky, funny, cinematically stunning, emotionally deep look at what motivates the men and woman behind the masks. Plus, watching the Hulk throw Loki around like a wet towel was insanely gratifying. This movie got us extremely excited for the next phase of the Marvel superhero movies, beginning with Iron Man 3, which will commence immediately after the events of The Avengers. We’ll finally get a chance to see what happens after all the death and destruction of superhero fights.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Picked By Aly Semigran)
Benh Zeitlin's stunning debut about a brave, fierce little girl named Hushpuppy (miniature force of nature Quvenzhané Wallis) living in a post-storm bayou with her detiriorating, alcoholic father Wink (fellow impressive newcomer Dwight Henry) is an exhilarating, overwhelming experience. (To call it a tearjerker might imply you've had any tears left afterwards.) While the film may, in part, be about the awesome power of nature, it's really about love and the incredibly strength we can find in ourselves in the most challenging situations. In addition to the brilliant performances and masterful direction, Beasts also had the best musical score of any film this year.
Cabin in the Woods (Picked By Shaunna Murphy)
After an eons-long release delay, Cabin in the Woods finally made its way to theaters this spring — and for this, I thank the vicious, vengeful Gods. I would gladly sacrifice a gaggle of idiots for this perfect blend of (dare I say it?) meta, self-aware horror-comedy. The dialogue and wink-wink horror tropes were endlessly entertaining, while still being pretty scary — and not just while you're stoned, though Fran Kranz' Marty makes a pretty good case for legalization. Also, it's Bradley Whitford's best work in years. Also also, Richard Jenkins.
Cloud Atlas (Picked By Matt Patches)
Cloud Atlas was an ambitious movie the directors of The Matrix spent years trying to convince investors could work, but the result was worth the wait. A sprawling, interconnected story chronicling life's biggest challenges and the human spirit that overcomes them, Cloud Atlas is a big screen experiment that makes full use of its canvas. Spanning the 19th Century to the post-apocalyptic future, the Wachowskis, working with co-director Tom Tykwer, used special effects and A-List actors to tackle grand themes with a three-hour movie that stands as one of 2012's only true epics.
The Comedy (Picked By Matt Patches)
Tim Heidecker has made a career out of pushing the boundaries of "acceptable" comedy, but little did we realize he was only scratching the surface of the artform's subversive nature. In The Comedy, the actor loses himself in Swanson, a terrorist of the deadpan variety. Heidecker takes privileged young people to task in a tour-de-force performance that's hilarious, terrifying, and completely mesmerizing. Director Rick Alverson strips down the New York City landscape to its ugliest, laying on a rumbling soundscape to ensure our descent into Hell isn't too comfortable. The Comedy isn't easy to swallow, but for anyone looking for a challenge, it's a satisfying meal.
The Deep Blue Sea (Picked By Christian Blauvelt)
A tear-stained reverie of faded love and heartbreak, director Terence Davies’ first narrative film since 2000’s equally devastating The House of Mirth is the year’s most thoughtful, introspective character study. Rachel Weisz, in a career-best performance, plays a woman in 1950s London caught between her uncontrollable, adulterous passion for a former RAF pilot (Tom Hiddleston) and her awareness that he’s a total cad, unworthy of her (or any woman’s) love. So she thinks that suicide is the only way to reconcile head and heart. Set during the course of one day—the day on which Weisz’ character has decided to end her life—Davies’ delicate camera expands the parameters of the Terrence Rattigan play on which it’s based through a mosaic of flashbacks that chart the progression of her affair, including the most haunting depiction of The Blitz you’ll ever see.
The Hunger Games (Picked By Leanne Aguilera)
"May the odds be ever in your favor.” This past March, audiences were led through a whirlwind of raw emotions and heart-pounding adventures as 24 tributes schemed, fought, and killed in the brutal quest to be the winner of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The first installment of Suzanne Collins' best-selling trilogy The Hunger Games was triumphantly transferred to the big screen, overall becoming the highest grossing female-led action film of all time. And for many book fans, hearing Jennifer Lawrence desperately call out, “I volunteer as tribute!” brought chills of excitement and satisfaction to know that they have cast the perfect Katniss Everdeen to eventually rise up against the Capitol as the Mockingjay that we all know, fear and love."
Lincoln (Picked By Kelsea Stahler)
This historical drama couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. Just as our country teeters on a precipice, demanding compromise and change, Lincoln sweeps into to tell the story of one of the nation’s most honorable politicians as he affected one of those most important and necessary changes in our history through less-than honorable means. Daniel Day-Lewis is could not be more perfect to capture the intimate portrait of the 16th American president, a man many of us presume to know from school-day history lessons. The film glosses over a few historical points of Lincoln’s move to pass the 13th Amendment before the end of the Civil War, eschewing them for the more dramatic moments, but in a landscape of Captain Americas and Iron Men, it’s a comfort to enjoy a film about an American hero whose strength was of conviction instead of brawn.
Magic Mike (Picked By Aly Semigran)
Don't call it the Channing Tatum stripper movie. Steven Soderbergh's sleek, smart, and — yes, sexy — slice of Americana is so much more than that. Part buddy comedy, part cautionary drama, the well-written and well-acted (Channing, who knew?) Magic Mike was a genuine risk taker that paid off big as the thinking woman's fantasy antidote to Fifty Shades of Grey. Plus, Matthew McConaughey's supporting turn as an sociopathic strip club owner is worth losing your shirt over.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (Picked By Lindsey DiMatinna)
This movie was so much fun. I love all the crazy plot lines, especially watching Alex fall in love. But, the circus performance at the end was totally brilliant, especially in 3D. The 3D effects made all the action in this movie come alive right in front of me and made me feel like I was a part of the cartoon story. Yes, I am still a kid at heart.
Moonrise Kingdom (Picked By Alicia Lutes)
It's almost too easy for people to find reasons to dislike or poo-poo the work of Wes Anderson. It's "too precious" or "too indie," detractors cry in a flurried, expected manner. But with his 2012 release, Moonrise Kingdom, we saw Anderson's deft hand take a well-guided stab at childhood, romance, and the heart one develops from living in those moments. It's whimsical in the way all childhood memories are, but grounded in a wonderful story outside of its beautiful scenery and charms. Richly-developed characters, a need to escape, and the raw emotion of living—this is what makes 'Moonrise Kingdom' a highlight of 2012. Performance highlights include Bill Murray (duh), Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, and our young heroes Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.
Oslo, August 31 (Picked By Christian Blauvelt)
Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s second film, ‘Oslo, August 31,’ lets the world unfold during the course of a single day through the eyes of a character contemplating suicide. In this case, it’s Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), a 34-year-old guy with intellectual pretensions who’s let out of a drug-rehab clinic for one day to attend a job interview with a magazine. As the title suggests, the movie is also something of a city symphony for Norway’s capital, which Trier (yes, he’s distantly related to Lars) calls “the suburb of Europe.” ‘Oslo’ is purely a cerebral affair, with a character who rationalizes his irrational choices in a way that’s stunningly logical…and all the more unsettling for it.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Picked By Michael Arbeiter)
It’s no easy feat to turn a universally life-changing coming-of-age novel into an equally powerful feature film. Granted, it doesn’t hurt to have the novel’s author at the helm of the movie — such is the case The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which author Stephen Chbosky adapted from the very book that turned high school around for so many sad and lonely teenagers into a piece of cinema with just as dynamic an emotional force. The film’s starring players — a Logan Lerman stuck in his own head, an Emma Watson drenched in self-contempt, and (best of all) a hilarious and heartbreaking Ezra Miller as a young man charged with defending his sexual orientation against the world around him — breathe a life so vivid into Chbosky’s magical words, serving the story with just as much affect as the incarnates of yourself and your friends that you imagined to be fostering these roles upon first reading the book. From the softer, sweeter moments, to the dark and hard-to-watch turns, Perks is wholly real, reminding even those of us who read about and related to Charlie so many years ago just what it’s like to be him. And to feel, if only for a second, infinite.
Silver Linings Playbook (Picked By Anna Brand)
When you put Bradley Cooper in a movie without a strange baby and booze and smack a mental illness on him, doubts will soar. The same way Jennifer Lawrence without a bow and arrow undoubtedly creates skeptics. But leave it to these off-beat stars (with a 15-year age difference!) to bring seamless honesty and perfect chemistry. The blue collar setting – much like the director's The Fighter – is captured in such a relatable way it's almost desirable. Even though we get an ending as unrealistic as the time Matthew Mcconaughey chased down a taxi on a bridge and got to Kate Hudson just in time in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, it didn't take away from the thought-provoking story and spot-on acting. Not even a little bit. In fact, it was what we wanted all along.
Sleepwalk with Me (Picked By Michael Arbeiter)
Sleepwalk with Me is not at all just a celebration of standup comedian Mike Birbiglia, nor of standup comedy in general. It is a celebration of storytelling. Birbiglia channels his own ascension of the industry in this semi-fictional account of the comic’s early career, romantic relationships, and struggles with a chaotic sleep disorder. In the sentiment of the age-old “write what you know” adage, Birbiglia’s film expresses the philosophy that the greatest stories — be they funny or serious in nature — are those infused with the most honesty and intimacy. When Birbiglia’s author surrogate Matt Pandamiglia embraces his flaws and shortcomings, he learns just how much merit lies within the stories he has at his disposal. And beyond just influencing his career as a standup does this lesson influence his life — in the most laugh-out-loud and sincere fashion imaginable.
Zero Dark Thirty (Picked By Matt Patches)
Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal continue to mine high drama from real life circumstances, following The Hurt Locker with a how-can-this-possibly-be-true true story behind the investigation that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Like a modern All the President's Men, Zero Dark Thirty finds emotion in the facts, keeping us on the edge of our seats as Jessica Chastain's Maya loses herself (and her friends) to the hunt. We know how the story ends, but impressively, getting there never seems predictable.
The 5 Worst:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Picked By Aly Semigran)
No one was in on the joke here. Not the audiences who wisely skipped out on the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's comic novel of the same name and especially not filmmaker Timur Bekmamtebov, who played this dreck up as if it were a legitimate period piece without having his actors (including the talented, Benjamin Walker, who deserves better) so much as a wink or a nod to its overtly absurd premise. Joyless, poorly executed, and, considering it came out the same year as the masterful Lincoln, downright embarrassing.
Brave (Picked By Matt Patches)
Pixar's perfect streak took a major bump after Cars 2 and the hope was Brave, the animation studio's first fairy tale, could get them back on track. No dice. Princess Merida's tale had potential, but never ran with it, taking a hard left in the middle of Merida's cry for independence to explore a wacky tale of a Bear and her daughter. With a feeling of being slapped together, Brave missed the mark. Attribute it to high expectations — the film demands the scrutiny thanks to years of near-perfect work.
Chasing Mavericks (Picked By Brian Moylan)
A good movie should have sympathetic and interesting characters who follow a narrative arc. There should be development and consistency and rousing performances and new revelations about the human condition. In the absense of all of those there should at least be enough robots, lasers, superpowers, and aliens to keep you distracted for a couple of hours. Chasing Mavericks has none of those. Based on the true story of a young man whose neighbor teaches him to surf the biggest wave in California, this Gerard Butler vehicle lurches from scene to boring scene through some tired melodrama and stock sportsporational set pieces. Aside from some top-notch surfing footage this is a complete waste of time, even more so that there could be a revelatory story somewhere in there.
The Raven (Picked By Matt Patches)
With cinematography inspired by your local diner's split pea soup, writing at which airport mystery novelists would turn up their noses, and acting from the school of crazy Nic Cage, The Raven had all the pieces to be a so-bad-its-good cult classic. Instead, the Edgar Allen Poe serial killer flick is impenetrable dreck, the only reminder of the meandering film's stakes being John Cusack's hysterical (and overly repeated) scream of the name "EMILY!" every few minutes. Emily made a smart move — she disappeared from the movie.
The Master (Picked By Christian Blauvelt)
2012 had no greater “Emperor Has No Clothes” movie moment than The Master, a shallow, sodden character study about wayward sailor Freddie Quill (Joaquin Phoenix), a guy who likes to stand akimbo, jut out his jaw, and mumble unintelligibly (Phoenix’s sole acting choices) before and after falling under the thrall of an L. Ron Hubbard-style pseudo-philosopher (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s uncritical preoccupation with power, the select few who hold power, and everyone else who covets power, seems to have devolved into adolescent banality since his genuinely frightening depiction of Tom Cruise’s modern-day pied piper in Magnolia. Which is to say that it’s hard to imagine why any Scientologist, Cruise included, would be offended by anything in The Master. Anyone have some of Freddie Quill’s paint thinner so I can drown my sorrow about this mess of a film?
Or is it the best? (Picked By Matt Patches)
Anderson became the talk of the town in 2012 when he unveiled The Master's stunning 70mm photography, a picture quality so crisp and saturated that even if the film chased its narrative tail for two hours, the visuals would be enough of a pay off. Luckily, he had something incredible to capture in the wide-frame glory. Using religion as an entry point, The Master takes us as close to someone's internal monologue as an outsider can possibly get, with Phoenix and Hoffman's range of skills on full display as they unravel the imbecile Freddie and the seductive Lancaster Dodd. When clashed together, The Master becomes a tense match of wits. Who loses in the end is ambiguous, making the secrets of the human mind the heart of the film.
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Forget that the latest adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's sweeping romance novel comes from the man who brought us the slick-but-stuffy Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. Every frame of director Joe Wright's Anna Karenina is a wonder to behold overflowing with visual spectacle and roaring performances. Keira Knightley Jude Law Aaron Taylor-Johnson and the rest of the cast fit perfectly in the high drama epic but it's really Wright's playground. Following Hanna an artful spin on the action movie Wright returns to the period drama but injects it with dazzling daring choices. A book like Anna Karenina could once fit in reality but its larger-than-life legacy precedes it. Wright acknowledges that from frame one approaching the film like a grand ballet or opera where grand gestures broad emotions and overt theatrics are commonplace. That vision clicks transforming Anna Karenina into an exhilarating moviegoing experience.
The storyline of Anna Karenina isn't far off from a daytime soap: It's 1874 and Anna (Knightley) is floating through existence as the wife of influential government player Karenin (Law). But when her brother Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) summons her to Moscow to save his marriage Anna's entire world is shaken up. She meets Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson) a cavalry hunk who finds himself smitten with the taken lady. She's in the same boat: The two strike up a flirtatious relationship that evolves into one of sexual passion. A scandalous affair would incite trouble in the preset day but in the 19th century it's the ultimate crime. Quickly Anna's life comes crumbling down.
The intertwining melodrama of Anna Karenina earned the novel its classic status but Wright uses the material as a launching pad for imagination rather than a tome to translate to screen. Many of the scenes are staged in a theater creating an instant awareness of the production. Sets shift and are reconstructed into new rooms; actors costume change in the span of single shots; action sequences like a thrilling horse race are conducted on stage with special effects you might see on Broadway. Wright works this sort of stylization in the other direction too; a character could walk an empty stage open a door and suddenly be on a snow-covered hill. Anna Karenina isn't the first film to use the effect but in Wright's hands it's exhilarating.
The movie is Wright's third collaboration with Knightley and easily their most successful. Knightley never struggles to stay on the same page as the heightened material whether she's nailing a dance sequence or breaking down in a flood of tears. Casting an ensemble around Knightley is no easy task but Taylor-Johnson gives his best work yet as the debonair love interest and Macfadyen steals the show with moments of physical comedy.
We have expectations of the texture and structure of period romances. Anna Karenina defies them. Masterpiece Theater it is not.